Pitchers and catchers report to spring training this week, which means that off the diamond, MLB marketers are nearing the end of their sales cycle. As far as we can discern from the bleachers, they are batting .500 on renewals so far.
Procter & Gamble, which has found sports as religion after years of avoiding it, is finalizing a renewal with an omnibus deal that includes Head & Shoulders. A new Head & Shoulders commercial with Joe Mauer was shot recently, with the Twins catcher back for his second year as a spokesman as P&G uses sports to pitch the billion-dollar shampoo brand directly to men for the first time. The broad personal-care sponsorship also includes Gillette, which traces its MLB sponsor roots with MLB as far back as the late 1930s.
Meanwhile, InterContinental Hotels’ Holiday Inn brand, an MLB sponsor in the hotel and resort categories since 2006, is not returning. With a billion-dollar repositioning and renovation for Holiday Inn to tout, MLB was a nice platform, and the brand did some impressive activation, including baseball-themed TV ads around the Holiday Inn upgrade, which showed a Holiday Inn “ground crew’’ upgrading the hotel, along with some earlier creative featuring Fox MLB talent Joe Buck pushing the “official hotel of MLB.’’
However, marketing behind the Holiday Inn facelift is over and Crowne Plaza, the next InterContinental brand in need of a brand uplift, is not necessarily a good fit for MLB.
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| Majestic’s new fleece top will be worn by MLBers beginning in spring training. |
DIAMOND DUDS: Elsewhere in hardball marketing, VF’s Majestic brand shot a TV ad in downtown Miami earlier this month touting its longtime rights to make and market Major League Baseball’s on-field jerseys.
The spot should break in mid-to-late March and features the Boston Red Sox’s David Ortiz and the MLB home run leader from the Toronto Blue Jays, Jose Bautista. Alex Radetsky at Radegen Sports Management handles marketing for both.
As part of the ad, both players serve as mannequins in a faux sporting goods store. Jim Pisani, president of VF’s licensed sports group, was mum on creative details, but said “the message is that it’s OK to wear your MLB jersey anywhere — it’s not just for the stadium.”
The ad will be supported by digital, social and point-of-sale campaigns.
Another major Majestic initiative for the upcoming season is the new on-field item, the $59.99 featherweight fleece top, which will be worn by MLBers beginning in spring training and throughout the season.
COMINGS & GOINGS: As part of a purge of senior licensing executives at WWE, former NFL consumer products chief Jim Connelly is out as licensing chief, a position he had held since July 2009. No replacement has been named. … At MillerCoors, 11-year brewery veteran Ryan Luckey moves from director of sports and entertainment marketing to director, innovations and sustainability. Luckey held the sports/entertainment slot since 2009. No replacement has been named. … Gary Jacobus moves from the NBA, where he was vice president of global marketing partnerships since 2009, to executive vice president, head of business development at Media Ventures Group, New York. … Meanwhile at the NBA, with the lockout over, the league has started to fill the loss of Peter Farnsworth, former senior vice president of business development, who left late last year. The league has rehired Brandon Snow, who will be vice president, business development. Snow was director of client development at DDB since 2008, prior to which he was senior director of global marketing partnerships at the NBA. … On the team side, Allison Howard is joining the Los Angeles Lakers’ corporate sponsorship sales team after six years with Premier Partnerships in Santa Monica.
Terry Lefton can be reached at tlefton@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
